MIS 
670 
A wretch'; a mean fellow : 
Decrepit mifer! bale ignoble wretch ! 
I am defcended of a gentler blood. Shaliefpeare. 
A wretch covetous to extremity; one who in wealth 
makes himfelf miierable by the f^ir of poverty. This is 
the onlyJbiJ'e now in ufe. 
Though flte be dearer to my foul than reft 
To weary pilgrims, or to mifers gold, 
Rather than wrong Caftalio I’d forget her. Olway. 
No filver faints, by dying mifers given, 
Here brib’d the rage of ill-requited heaven ; 
But fuch plain roofs as piety could raife, 
And only vocal with the Maker’s praife. Pope. 
MIS'ERABLE, adj. [Fr. from mifer, Lat.] Unhappy; 
calamitous; wretched.—There will be a future ftate, and 
then how miferable is the voluptuous unbeliever left in 
the lurch! South. 
O nation miferable, 
With an untitled tyrant, bloody fcepter’d ! 
When {halt thou fee thy wholeiome days again ? Shahefp. 
Wretched; worthlefs.— Miferable comforters are ye all. 
Job xvi.z.—Culpably parfimonious ; ilingy.—Reafon tells 
me, that it is more mifery to be covetous than to be poor, 
as our language, by a peculiar figniftcance of clialeft, calls 
the covetous man the miferable man. South's Sermons. — 
Defpicable; wretched ; mean : as, a miferable perfon. 
MIS'ERABLENESS,/ State of mifery.—His profperity 
either lhrivels him into miferablenefs, or melts him into 
luxury. Scott's Chriftian Life. 
MIS'ERABLY, adv. Unhappily; calamitoufly.—Of the 
five employed by him, two of them quarrelled, one of 
which was flain, and the other hanged for it; the third 
drowned himfelf; the fourth, though rich, came to beg 
his bread; and the fifth w'as inferably (tabbed to death. 
South. —Wretchedly; meanly.—As the love I bear you 
makes me thus invite you, fo the fame love makes me 
sihamed to bring you to a place, where you lhall be fo 
(not fpoken by ceremony but by truth) inferably enter¬ 
tained. Sidney. —Covetoufly. Ainfwortli. 
MIS'ERDEN, a village in Gloucefterihire, turn miles 
and a half from Bifiey, and nine from Gloucefter. Here 
is a park feven miles in circumference, full of fine beech- 
wood. In a valley in this park is a mount of a circular 
form, (now overgrown with trees,) the Icite of an ancient 
caftle, built in the reign of king John ; part of the moat 
which encompalfed the building is ftill to be feen, and 
large hewn Hones were dug up, and an apartment difco- 
vered beneath the rnbbifh, about thirty years ago. The 
manor-houfe, which Hands upon an eminence in the park, 
is a ftately old building. 
MISE'RE, a river of America, which runs into Lake 
Superior in lat. 46. 14. N. Ion 89. 3. W. 
MISERE'RE, f. [Lat. have mercy.] The name, and 
firft word, of one of the penitential pfalms ; being that 
which was commonly ufed to be given by the ordinary to 
fuch condemned malefaftors as were allowed the benefit 
of the clergy: whence it is alfo called th tpfalm of mercy. 
But thefe°peifons are not now called upon to read. 
It is alfo the’firft word in the Latin tranflation of the 
51ft Pfalm, and has been elaborately fet to mufic by all the 
o-reat compcfers of the Romifti church, from Paleftrina to 
Jomelli and Haydn: but no Miferere has been fo cele¬ 
brated as that compoied by Gregorio Allegri, for the 
pontifical chapel at Rome, in 1629; which has continued 
to be folemnly and exquiiitely performed there on Wed- 
Tiefday in Pallion-weex, and on Good Friday. See Jo¬ 
melli, and Burney’s PrefentState of Mufic in France and 
Italy. 
Miserere Mei, denotes a kind of colic, or diforder of 
the inteftines,.in which the excrements, inftead of palling 
off the common way, are often thrown up by the mouth. 
This horrid diforder is the fame with what we otherwile 
call volvulus, and iliac pajjion. 
M I S 
MISERICO'RDE, f [Fr. mercy.] The name of the 
dagger, which w'as formerly the conftant companion of 
the fword, at leaft from the days of Edward I. and is 
mentioned in the ftatute of Winchefter. Its appellation 
derived by Fauchet, the French antiquary, either from 
its being ufed to put perfons out of their pain, who were 
irrecoverably wounded, or, from the fight of it cauiing 
thole knights who were overthrown to cry out for quar¬ 
ter, or mercy. After the invention of fire-arms, daggers 
were fcrevved into the muzzles of the muikets, to aniwer 
the prefent purpofe of the bayonet. 
MISERICOR'DIA, f [Lat. mercy.] In law, an arbi¬ 
trary amerciament, or puniihment, impofed on any perfon 
for an offence. It is thus called, according to Fitzher- 
bert, becaufe it ought to be but fmall, and lefs than that 
required by Magna Charta. If a perfon be outrageoufly 
amerced in a court that is not of record, the writ called 
moderata mfericordia lies for moderating the amercement 
according to the nature of the fault. 
MISERREPOU'R, a town of Hindooftan, in Dooab: 
fifteen miles north-weft of Etayah. 
MIS'ERY, f. [ miferia , Lat. misere, Fr.] Wretchednefs; 
unhappinefs.—Happinefs, in its full extent, is the utmoil 
pleafure we are capable of, and mifery the utmoft pain. 
Locke. 
My heart is drowm’d with grief, 
My body round engirt with mifery. Shaliefpeare'sHen.Ml. 
Calamity; misfortune; caufe of mifery : 
When w r e our betters fee bearing our woes. 
We fcarcely think our miferies our foes. Shaliefpeare. 
The gods from heav’n furvey the fatal ftrife, 
And mourn the miferies of human life. Dry den's JEneid. 
[From mifer.'] Covetoufnefs; avarice. Not in life. Mifer 
now' lignifies not an unhappy, but a covetous, man; yet 
mifery now fignifies not covetoufnefs, but unhappinefs .— In 
a iabrick of forty thoufand pounds charge, I wifli thirty 
pounds laid out before in an exaft model; fora little 
mifery may ealily breed fome abfurdity of greater charge, 
Wotton. 
He look’d upon things precious, as they were 
The common muck o’ th’ world : he covets lefs 
Than mifery itfelf would give. Shakejpeare's Coriolanus. 
MIS'ERY I'SLAND, an ifland in Maflachufett’s Bay, 
between Salem and Cape Anne. 
MISESTEE'M, f. Difregard ; flight. 
To MISFA'LL, v. n. To befall unluckily: 
Thereat Hie gan to triumph with great boaft, 
And to upbrayd that chaunce which him misfell. Spenfer. 
To MISFA'RE, v. n. [mippapan, Sax.] To be in an 
ill ftate.—Ere thou fo for thyielf misfare. Gower. 
MISFA'RE, f. Illftate; misfortune: 
Of whom Sir Artegall gan then enquire 
The whole occafion of his late misfare. Spenfer. 
To MISFASH'ION, v. a. To form wrong.—A thing in 
reafon impoflible, thorough their misfq/hioned preconceit, 
appeared unto them no lefs certain, than if nature had 
written it in the very foreheads of all the creatures of 
God. Hahewill cm Providence. ^ 
MISFASH'IONING, f. The a£l of forming or mak¬ 
ing ill. 
MISFEASANCE, f. in law, a mifdeed or trefpafs. 
Whence alfo misfeafor, a trefpaffer. 
MISFEA'SANT; f. A trefpais. 
MISFEA'SOR, J .' A trefpaffer. 
To MISFEI'GN, v.n. To feign with an ill defign 
Who ail this while 
Amazed ftands lierfelfe fo mockt to fee 
By him, who has the guerdon of his guile 
For fo niisfeigning her true knight to bee. Sjienfer. 
